102 THE HUNTING FIELD 



on the grand prowl till a later or earlier hour in the morning. 

 He may put his nose out and find it raining, and having 

 neither cloak, mackintosh, nor clogs, may decide that he is not 

 hungry, or that he has a little something in his larder in the 

 neighbourhood that he can get when the weather improves. 



From an hour before midnight, till about three o'clock in 

 the morning, is the prescribed time of the authorities, though 

 should it be moonlight, and reynard hungry, we don't see 

 what is to detain him at home so late. Better, however, to be 

 late than too early, for it is unpleasant, both to fox and 

 followers, to have him in the " lock-up house " when he is 

 wanted at large. 



Mr. Smith was an advocate — indeed the inventor of the 

 system of walling up earths at the beginning of the season, 

 the duties of the Earth-stoppers being to see that the fagots, 

 or whatever the barrier was made of, were not removed until 

 the spring, when the vixens were let in to a lay up. A deduc- 

 tion w-as made from the pay of a man for each time a fox got 

 to ground in his district. 



Mr. Smith, indeed, considers the disadvantages of having 

 earths are so much greater than the advantages, that if every 

 earth in the country were done away with, it would be a 

 benefit to foxhunting, even as respects the breeding of foxes, 

 for the vixens would breed above ground in furze, or would 

 find drains which no one knows of. 



Colonel Cook published an estimate some years since of the 

 expense of hunting a country, which has been quoted and 

 requoted till we are tired of seeing it, for it has alwaj'S 

 appeared to us that the expense of hunting one country affords 

 no more clue to the expense of hunting another, than does the 

 management of foxes and fox-earths in one country afford a 

 guide to the management of foxes and fox-earths in another. 

 Almost all countries are now hunted after some fashion or 



